12.2. yum Commands

yum commands are typically run as yum <command> <package name/s>. By default, yum will automatically attempt to check all configured repositories to resolve all package dependencies during an installation/upgrade.

The following is a list of the most commonly-used yum commands. For a complete list of available yum commands, refer to man yum.

yum install <package name/s>

Used to install the latest version of a package or group of packages. If no package matches the specified package name(s), they are assumed to be a shell glob, and any matches are then installed.

yum update <package name/s>

Used to update the specified packages to the latest available version. If no package name/s are specified, then yum will attempt to update all installed packages.

If the --obsoletes option is used (i.e. yum --obsoletes <package name/s>, yum will process obsolete packages. As such, packages that are obsoleted accross updates will be removed and replaced accordingly.

yum check-update

This command allows you to determine whether any updates are available for your installed packages. yum returns a list of all package updates from all repositories if any are available.

yum remove <package name/s>

Used to remove specified packages, along with any other packages dependent on the packages being removed.

yum provides <file name>

Used to determine which packages provide a specific file or feature.

yum search <keyword>

This command is used to find any packages containing the specified keyword in the description, summary, packager and package name fields of RPMs in all repositories.

yum localinstall <absolute path to package name/s>

Used when using yum to install a package located locally in the machine.

Note: This documentation is provided {and copyrighted} by Red Hat®, Inc. and is released via the Open Publication License. The copyright holder has added the further requirement that Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. The CentOS project redistributes these original works (in their unmodified form) as a reference for CentOS-5 because CentOS-5 is built from publicly available, open source SRPMS. The documentation is unmodified to be compliant with upstream distribution policy. Neither CentOS-5 nor the CentOS Project are in any way affiliated with or sponsored by Red Hat®, Inc.